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Nobuhiro Watsuki

From Virtual Japan

Nobuhiro Watsuki is a mangaka, or manga artist, who was born in 1970. Manga is the name given to Japanese comic books, and has become very popular in many countries, including the United States. Watsuki was born in Nagaoka, Japan, and began drawing manga when his older brother did, at the age of three. His older brother eventually grew out of the phase; Watsuki still hasn’t.

When he was a child, he tried fighting with Kendo sticks and discovered that he loved it. He was very small, though, and very weak, which meant that he was never in the first string to play. Eventually, he decided that Kendo was not worth the frustration, and quit the spot. He continued to draw, though, and his Kendo experience came in handy when he needed to come up with new characters for some of his manga work.

In high school, he won the Hop Step award. This award was given to him because of his work on a manga named Podmark. After he left high school, he went on to work, assisting the original author on a manga known as Arabian Lamp-Lamp. Shortly after he became extremely famous due to his Rorouni Kenshin series.

Rorouni Kenshin

Rorouni Kenshin is also known as “Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story”. This manga is the one that cemented Watsuki’s place in mangaka history. It is about an assassin who is named Himura Kenshin. Kenshin has killed many people in his life, and makes a vow to never kill a human being again. Kenshin winds up living with a dojo, where he helps the owner of the dojo, Kamiya Kaoru, to bring in more business, so that her family’s dojo does not have to close.

Other Works

Buso Renkin is another of Watsuki’s popular works. It focuses on a teenager named Kazuki Muto. One night he tries to save a girl from a monster, a girl who doesn’t need to be saved, and is killed. The next morning, though, he wakes up, not realizing that the night before was not the dream that he seems to think it was. Shortly after, a huge serpent attacks both Kazuki and his sister. Tokiko Tsumura, the girl that he has saved, comes to him and destroys the monster. She explains that the monster is called a homunculus, which is a monster that is similar to a golem.

She tells Kazuki that she saved him after he died by placing the Kakugane medal into his chest. This medal gives him the ability to be alive, as the metal takes the place of his heart. The device, which was created using alchemy, makes the user capable of destroying the homunculus monsters. Kazuki creates a huge lance, in order to destroy the monsters, and joins Tokiko in her effort to destroy all of the homunculus.